Pullman created what he considered to be a model town for his workers in the 1880s.The neighborhood was certainly better than most laborers’ neighborhoods. It had a library, shops, a hotel, playgrounds, and well-built houses for the workers. It was highly praised in the press.

But over time, it also had its share of controversy. Pullman built it and Pullman ran it. He wanted no town meetings, no unions, and no home ownership. The town’s hotel bar was off-limit to residents. Pullman even refused to reduce rents after he cut workers’ pay during a financial downturn.

Nevertheless, the area is considered a viable neighborhood today with many longtime residents. This designation will have a positive impact.

George Pullman revolutionized rail travel, instituted sleeping cars and dining cars, and changed the way well-to-do Americans traveled. His impact on rail travel was so distinctive that his name entered the popular lexicon. Efficiency kitchens in urban apartments were once dubbed Pullmans. During the Depression, men who were down on their luck hopped rides on railroad box cars they called “side-door Pullmans.” We make loaves of bread called Pullmans because their flat tops allow them to be stacked efficiently. Compact suitcases, designed to fit under a train car seat, are still known as Pullmans.

And what child wouldn’t love to have one of these Pullman cars for her teddy bear to travel in.

November 19, 2014

Sunday, November 23 is Stir-Up Sunday, the day people traditionally make their Christmas puddings. Soaked in rum or brandy, the puddings can be set aside to mellow and be ready to eat for the holiday.

Why are puddings made on this particular Sunday? Because it is the last Sunday before the season of Advent, the time of preparation for Christmas, when a prayer in Anglican churches directs parishioners to “stir up …the wills of thy faithful people.” Of course, the prayer has nothing to do with pudding. But that Sunday became the starting point of pudding preparation, when plum puddings as well as the wills of the faithful were to be stirred.

Everyone in the family is supposed to take a turn stirring the pudding and to make a wish while doing so. Along with the raisins, currants, sugar, and spices that go into the pudding are various trinkets. Each one has a meaning for the person who finds it in his or her slice on Christmas day. The person who finds a ring will be married in the coming year. A coin means riches are on the way. The trinket tradition is so well known that Agatha Christie made the trinkets a clue in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding.

In Victorian times, it was so important to have a pudding that women who weren’t well off joined savings clubs and set aside a few pennies a week throughout the year so they’d be able to buy the ingredients in time for the holiday. Maybe that’s how Mrs. Cratchit managed it.

Americans know Christmas, or plum, pudding from Charles Dickens’s description in A Christmas Carol. But the pudding never became central to the holiday in the U.S. the way it did in England. In the U.S., it was and is just another dessert.

In England, it’s just as iconic as Christmas trees or carols. To this day, the pudding has a starring role at the holiday feast. At the close of dinner, the lights are dimmed and the pudding is carried aloft into the dining room wreathed in blue flames and greeted with oohs, aahs, and applause. Some people still make their puddings, to judge by the many recipes printed in newspapers, magazines, and on-line. But stores in England abound with festively wrapped puddings for those who don’t make their own.

Queen Elizabeth serves pudding made by the royal chef to the family for Christmas dinner. She buys more puddings to give to staff and friends. It is estimated that over the years she’s given away 90,000 puddings, with no end in sight.

October 14, 2014

September 24, 2014

It’s fall and that means it’s time for apples again. Yes, they’re in supermarkets all summer long, but why eat out-of-season apples when you can have summer berries, peaches, plums, and melons?

However now that the temperature and the leaves are falling, I’m in the mood for apples fresh from farm-stands and farmers’ markets.

Crisp raw apples are wonderful on their own, and I love baked apples, apple pie, apple cake, and even applesauce. One of my favorite ways to serve apples is as a vegetable. This recipe is from Good Things to Eat by Rufus Estes, who was a chef on Pullman trains in the late nineteenth century. He cooked for presidents and princesses, for the gilded age elite as they traveled in elegant Pullman carriages. However, most of the recipes in his cookbook are as simple and down-to-earth as this one for apples and onions.

Apples and Onions

Select sour apples, pare, core and thinly slice. Slice about half as many onions, put some bacon fat in the bottom of a frying-pan and when melted add the apples and onions. Cover the pan and cook until tender, cooking rather slowly. Sprinkle with sugar, and serve with roast pork.

July 10, 2014

Food on the Rails traces the rise and fall of food on the rails from its rocky start to its glory days to its sad demise. Looking at the foods, the service, the rail station restaurants, the menus, the dining accommodations and more, Jeri Quinzio brings to life the history of cuisine and dining in railroad cars from the early days through today.

It's a great holiday gift for all the train fans on your list. Order today.

Order directly through Rowman & Littlefield at https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442227323 for a 30% discount on Food on the Rails. Use promotion code 4F14QUIN at checkout for 30% off – this promotion is valid until August 15, 2015. This offer cannot be combined with any other promo or discount offers.

Praise for the Book

“Jeri Quinzio has done it again! Food on the Rails is well researched, insightful, and a delight to read.” — Andrew F. Smith, author of Eating History: Thirty Turning Points in the Making of American History

“Drawing on numerous and varied sources, Quinzio provides a thorough, refreshing, and entertaining account of the rise and fall of the rail dining experience in North America and Europe, illustrated with occasional recipes to highlight the story.”

— James D. Porterfield, director of the Center for Railway Tourism, Davis & Elkins College; author of Dining by Rail: The History and Recipes of America's Golden Age of Railroad Cuisine

“In this lively social and cultural history, Jeri Quinzio evokes the glory days of rail travel in Europe and the United States, when dining cars served up multicourse meals on tables elegantly set with fine china, linens, and silver.”

“In Food on the Rails, Jeri Quinzio presents a lively history of the evolution of U.S. rail travels by describing food service, illustrated with menus and recipes that reflect different eras. How wonderful to be reminded of the golden age of railroad dining when travelers were served civilized meals in dining cars.”

— Barbara Haber, food historian; author of From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals

June 27, 2014

Being stuck on the phone/computer for hours with a software expert who’s in another country is a little like having a bunch of lemons. You can let it sour you on life or you can make lemonade.

I made lemonade. Or rather Henry, the software maven in the Philippines, turned the experience into lemonade. He not only solved my problem, but he also talked to me about ice cream, specifically ube ice cream. I’ve had all kind of ice creams, from Parmesan to sweet corn, but I’d never even heard of ube.

Turns out that it’s a specialty of the Philippines and it’s made from purple yams. The ice cream is a lovely lavender hue. It looks a lot like black raspberry. Henry forwarded images to me, which is how I know. He said it tastes a bit like chocolate.

I’ve sent information to my favorite ice cream maker, Gus Rancatore of Toscanini’s in Cambridge, Mass. If he can figure it out, it may pop up on his menu one day.

I was very happy to have my software problem resolved, but I was even more pleased to discover a new ice cream flavor. So the next time you’re stuck in software limbo with someone from India or South Korea or even Oregon, ask him or her about the local ice creams. And make lemonade.

May 07, 2014

Saturday, May 10 is National Train Day. To celebrate, naturally you could take a trip on a train. But if an actual trip isn’t possible at the moment, you can take a virtual trip by watching one of the great films that are set on or around trains. No matter what kind of film you’re in the mood for – mystery, wartime intrigue, thriller, romance, murder, even musical – there’s a train film for you.

Here are some of my favorites among the many terrific films featuring trains.

The closed, somewhat claustrophobic world of train compartments is the perfect setting for mysteries, which is no doubt why Alfred Hitchcock set some of his best films on trains -- Strangers on a Train, The Lady Vanishes, and North by Northwest among them.

For sunny view of life along the tracks, see The Harvey Girls. A singing dancing film about Fred Harvey’s railway restaurants and the girls who made them famous, it stars Judy Garland and features Angela Lansbury.

Danger, deceit and drugs are on track in Transsiberian, a chilling film featuring Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, and Ben Kingsley.

Burt Lancaster is wonderful in The Train, a gritty WWII movie about art looted by the Nazis, a topic that’s still in the news.

Brief Encounter, directed by David Lean and starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, is one of the most romantic train, or more accurately, train station films.

Caught on a Train stars a young Michael Kitchen and the formidable Peggy Ashcroft in a less than romantic view of European train travel and what used to be called a generation gap.

In Murder, She Said Agatha Christie’s seemingly dotty mastermind, Miss Marple, solves a murder mystery in spite of the skeptical authorities. Marple is perfectly played by Margaret Rutherford.

Then there’s Murder on the Orient Express. Agatha Christie’s most famous book has been filmed a few times. Albert Finney, Alfred Molina, and David Suchet have all played the remarkable Hercule Poirot, with his mustaches, his little grey cells, and his skill at solving the most confounding mysteries. Suchet is my favorite.

Watching train movies is the next best thing to taking a train trip and a great way to celebrate National Train Day.

April 25, 2014

Now you eat your ice cream and have your veggies, too. As long as you’re in Japan.

Häagen-Dazs is introducing two veggie-fruit combination ice creams in Japan. Tomato-Cherry and Carrot-Orange.

Both tomatoes and carrots have a slightly sweet taste anyway (carrot cake, anyone?) and combining those vegetables with cherries or oranges is probably a good match. They’d certainly be fun to taste.

The new line, called “Spoon-Vege,” also is lower in fat than other Häagen-Dazs ice creams. However, Tomato-Cherry and Carrot-Orange are only available in Japan, so it may be a while before most of us have a chance to lick them up.

Veggie ice creams are admittedly not common. But they’re not new either. In the 18th century a French cook named François Menon flavored his un-frozen cream desserts with celery, parsley, tarragon, chervil, fennel, and other herbs and vegetables. Before long, cooks were making ice creams with the same ingredients. They also liked ice creams flavored with flowers, including roses, violets, and orange flowers.

Recipes for artichoke ice cream also date back to the 18th century. Like the Spoon-Vegge ice creams, they had the additional benefit of containing fruit for added sweetness and flavor. In one recipe, pistachios and candied orange peel are mixed into the ice cream along with the artichokes.

A French confectioner of the era, M. Emy, made ice cream with truffles. Not the chocolate ones. The ones that come from beneath the ground and cost the earth.

Auguste Escoffier, the famed 19th century French chef, was one of many who blended asparagus into ice cream and molded it into the shape of stalks of asparagus.

The French weren’t the only ones to add veggies to their ice cream. Back in 1778, an Italian confectioner, Vincenzo Corrado, wrote that there was no vegetable a good confectioner couldn’t turn into an ice cream. Even today, some seem determined to prove him right.

I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before somebody comes up with ice cream made with kale.

March 14, 2014

Before food was served on trains, passengers had to eat elsewhere or pack their own food. To accommodate them, restaurants were built in or near stations. Although many emphasized speed and convenience, some provided good food and service as well. When dining cars were built and attached to trains, passengers could dine in style aboard the train.

Read Food on the Rails to discover how Pullman developed dining and sleeping cars, how the Orient Express got underway, and much more.

This is the first broad history of food served and eaten during train travel from its golden years in the early 20th century to its decline and fall after World War II. If you love learning about railroad dining, it's for you.

November 06, 2013

I had never had pralines before I went to New Orleans and couldn’t wait to try them.They sounded so exotic and tempting and Southern, with maybe a hint of French thrown in, too.

Penuche, on the other hand is an old friend. I’ve made it nearly every Christmas for years and years. Penuche, for those who don’t know it, is a brown sugar fudge. I make it with walnuts because their bitter edge helps balance the sugary sweetness of the candy.

Having penuche at Christmas is one of those traditions that snuck up on me. After a few years of making it, it was expected. People complained if I forgot. Now penuche is as traditional in my family as a tree or presents and as familiar as fruit cake.

Penuche was an old pal, but pralines were a tempting, romantic stranger. Pralines were a big part of the reason I wanted to go to New Orleans. So I went. I tasted. I was disappointed. So disappointed.

It’s probably that devil high-fructose corn syrup, but pralines are tooth-achingly sweet. The pecans they’re made with don’t help, since they have no bitter edge to them. And the texture of pralines is too compact and dense.

But the biggest surprise to me was their similarity to the penuche I take for granted. Pralines resemble penuche in flavor, but are nowhere near as good. To me, they’re nothing but a sappier, less interesting version of penuche.

I’ll take penuche over pralines anytime. Sometimes, old loves really are the best.

Penuche

Here’s the recipe I use to make penuche. It’s the simplest I’ve seen and the best.